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Abstract

The instrument maker Hartog van Laun devised a special table for an orrery, a lunarium and a tellurium. Van Laun made these instruments for educational purposes, but what makes his planetariums so interesting is the great variety and accuracy of demonstrations one can perform with them. In this paper I will deal with Van Laun and his instrument makers business. I will outline the design of the planetarium and some of the firm’s other instruments. Furthermore I will demonstrate that the detailed description of the planetarium made by Professor Jan Hendrik van Swinden boosted the spread of the instrument.

Keywords: astronomy | scientific instruments